2011 F1 season

One of my favourite new features on the site is the ability for F1 Fanatic to pick which drivers and teams they support.

With that in mind, I’ve had a look who you’ve picked so far and compiled this look at the most popular drivers and teams on F1 Fanatic right now.

Keep in mind these figures are not set in stone – they will change as more people join in on the site and others shift their allegiances between drivers and teams.

Drivers

Which drivers F1 Fanatic readers are supporting - November 2011

Jenson Button is the most popular driver among F1 Fanatic readers right now. Around one in eight F1 Fanatics (12.4%) who’ve used the site since the new version was launched picked him as a driver they’re supporting.

Kamui Kobayashi’s third place in the list underlines his reputation as a fan favourite.

Robert Kubica may not have raced this year but he’s far from forgotten and well inside the top ten.

Despite only having entered F1 mid-season, Daniel Ricciardo already had more than 50 fans

Some people picked only one driver, others picked as many as ten or more

To find out how many people support each driver, type their name into the search box and select results for members

Teams

Which teams F1 Fanatic readers are supporting - November 2011

McLaren are way out in front – Having the two most popular drivers probably helps!

Support is spread quite evenly among the remaining teams, with Lotus a surprise third. Will they still be as popular when they become Caterham?

To find out how many people support each team, type their name into the search box and select results for members

What year you started watching F1

http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/charts/2011drivercolours.csv

Year

1950

1951

1952

1953

1954

1955

1956

1957

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1959

1960

1961

1962

1963

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1965

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1969

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1997

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1999

2000

2001

2002

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2004

2005

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2007

2008

2009

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2011

Number of F1 Fanatics who started watching in this year

4

0

0

2

1

0

2

1

0

1

1

2

0

3

5

4

3

5

2

1

6

3

4

1

1

3

12

6

6

7

12

8

7

4

13

23

24

14

20

19

34

27

35

22

55

35

49

41

53

45

44

16

20

23

25

30

29

60

34

29

27

12

Most of us started watching F1 in the last 20 years.

But there’s plenty of F1 Fanatics whose memories stretch back far further – some even as far as the first years of the world championship.

Over to you

This is a snapshot of which drivers and teams are the most popular at the moment – but how will it look in a few months’ time? We’ll take another look at who’s earning your support again in the future.

You can change your selections at any time. Just log in and go to go to My Account > Profile > Edit > F1 teams and drivers.

Are you in the majority or minority when it comes to which drivers and teams you support? Have you changed your allegiance recently? Have your say in the comments.

165 comments on Your favourite F1 drivers & teams: November 2011

I’m actually surprised at just how far ahead McLaren are on this site, I thought Ferrari would be closer. I’m dissapointed to see Williams so low down as well, I guess people who started watching F1 in the late 2000s don’t feel the same attatchment to the team as those of us who started watching in the mid/late 90s.

I used to like Williams a lot, but that love did fall a lot during their BMW spell with Ralf and Heidi. I did like them better with Webber and Rosberg, but their form has been that dissapointing since then, its hard to feel good about them now.

@ads21 You are exactly right about the lack of attachment. I am relatively new to F1, started following in 2008 and although I recognise and admire their history, not witnessing it myself detaches it from me.

From what I’ve actually watched, I only see Williams as a team on the fall, a teams that lacks direction. I feel no connection to them and although I would hate for them to leave F1, I have no desire for them to climb higher.

There can obviously be a million reasons why each of us feel close to some particular driver and / or team. Here are mine.

My favourite drivers are Heikki Kovalainen, Paul di Resta and Daniel Ricciardo. Heikki is the best of the best and my number one since Australia 2008 but I have some feelings for Daniel and Paul, too. Hopefully Heikki isn’t now jealous :D

Heikki is a very likeable guy, very nice, I like his attitude, his philosophy, his voice, his tweets, him being Finnish, basically everything about him. It doesn’t surprise me that he’s much higher in the F1F support rankings than he currently is in F1 championship standings.

Paul is intelligent, calm and professional, I’ve been watching him closely since 2009 when he was competing in DTM. And it’s a big thing to change from touring cars to F1 and then immediately do a very decent job in the latter. I have a huge respect for him.

Daniel? Well, I always like people who are handsome and smile a lot :) That said, I also think he’s a big talent and very determined, the bright smile might sometimes be misleading.

My favourite teams are Lotus and Force India. I like Mike Gascoyne and also Tony Fernandes even if I think that Tony is more of a businessman than a true racing fan. I like the Malaysian side of the team, one of my all-time favourites Alex Yoong is also involved there. I believe the name change won’t affect their popularity much as they have a superb marketing approach that always keeps the team in the spotlight, mostly for positive reasons.

I think Force India’s driver policy is excellent, I like VJM and the touch of the Indian spirit. In my opinion, VJM has done a tremendous job by bringing the team from the very back of the grid to the front of midfield.

Maybe the reasons why I support my favourite drivers / teams are more emotional than practical. But passion is what F1 is about.

Unbelievably Force India Is Below Sauber….What A Joke!!!Mr.VJM Has Buit A Team Who Were Nothing At The Start To A Strong Team Who Occasionally Manages TO Beat Mercedes Which Has Thrice The Budget Of Force India.How Is This Evaluation Done?
It Seems Only British People Have Voted……..

Sauber have had a much richer history and a much more likeable management. Force India are Indian in name alone and have projected themselves as an ‘Indian’ racing team when they have Indian drivers, no base in India, no Indian mechanics, no Indian engine etc. The only thing Indian about the team is their owner and their investors.

Maybe Sauber are more popular because they have a much stronger racing pedigree and don’t pretend to be something they’re not?

I’ve been watching F1 all my life, which has been about the same length of time. Apart from childhood favourites like Hill and Coulthard, I’ve always been a neutral who didn’t have any allegiance to a particular team. But when BMW sold back to Sauber, and especially when they signed Kobayashi, I thought it was great that this plucky privateer team (well, in its original guise at least) had returned to Formula 1.

They aren’t in the sport to sell cars or promote a brand, they’re in it to race. They’ve got a great history, exciting young drivers and in Sauber and Kaltenborn, really likeable management. I decided I quite liked the team this year so I decided to do something I’ve never done before and decide to adopt a team to support. I hope they make progress over the next few years, it’d be great to see.

Common Guys What has that got to do with Countries Racing Pedigree.Infact i would say opposite,in a country where people hardly know and understand F1,Force India is Doing a massive job beating likes of sauber,williams who you say have got a lots of racing history.So am i wrong if i feel proud about it?

But my point is Force India aren’t really Indian. They are based in the UK, have British and German drivers, use German made engines and have no Indian personnel aside from the team’s owner. For an ‘Indian’ team, they are not very ‘Indian’. That’s why I think they aren’t as popular a team like Sauber who are much more ‘genuine’ in that respect.

Take these results and adjust them out like a poll. I would guess that the overwhelming number of readers are from Britain (just a wild guess), adjusting the results so the other countries on the forum have the same weight and see what the results look like would be interesting I’d think. More representative to the ‘world’ view of F1 instead of single country centric.

Considering Keith has stated this site isn’t made up of mostly UK fans it’s surprising to see Jenson, Lewis and McLaren as the best supported.

I actually think Button has done a lot toward repairing McLaren’s damaged reputation after 2007. People can see he’s an honest driver, doesn’t give up and always has time for people. Probably the best World Champion F1 has had for a long time (i don’t mean driver skill).

I disagree. Hamilton’s the main reason McLaren’s are still fighting at the front in F1. His arrival attracted hordes of new fans and his 08 title win did much to ameliorate the damage to McLaren’s reputation. If he’d jumped ship after 07, which he could have easily have done, McLaren could’ve easily have gone into a decline that would see them where Williams are now. McLaren without Hamilton would be seen as perennial also-rans, probably lost major sponsors – Santander for sure and probably Vodafone as well – and be in a tight financial bind given their road car project.

We’re talking about popularity and Hamilton’s sensational rookie season and 08 title win has brought a huge increase in popularity to F1 and McLaren. Kovalainen didn’t and Button – who’s career had been written off by most pundits – wouldn’t have come close in any of those championships and generated the subsequent attention.To which the irony of Hamilton’s popularity being a major factor in the BBC regaining F1 coverage has obviously been lost on their commentary team.

I think Keith did an analysis on this previously and found that while over half of the readership is non-British (I think it was something like 65%), UK residents make up the largest single contingent at 30-something percent.

Do you really think that most part of spaniards, brazilians, italians, germans…would have chosen Mclaren as their favourite team? or Button as their favourite driver? this is a british site, there are readers from other nationalities, but this is a british site… I can´t believe that this fact doesn´t mean anything. Imagine that we are in an italian site, with readers from different countries, but an italian site after all. who do you think that would have been chosen as favourite driver? and favourite team?.
I’m not british, but I have got, it could be said, a “certain affinity” with british people. Although I support Alonso, I’m in this site because of “the affinity”.

@Keithcollantine maybe you could change it so you can select one driver over the others. I bet even if you like 10 drivers, there’s one which stands out from the rest.

That’d be a bit more interesting to see… for example, I like almost every single driver (all but Sutil, Trulli and some others), but not all are my favourite drivers, so I selected only one: Mark Webber.

I remember being a fan of Button from when he first started but after his cars kept getting worse and worse as his career moved on. I gave up hope at the end of 2008. I felt so guilty and phoney supporting him in the Brawn even though I know I shouldn’t really.

Heh, I too remember being very interested in him when he entered the sport, but that faded and I sort of lost sight of him. Of course, 2009 put him back in the view, and he has been increasingly impressive since.

I hadn’t seen this feature before so I filled out mine. Wow, when working out when I started watching I realised I remember Mansell Driving for Ferrari when I was 3/4 years old making F1 among my oldest memories!

@Detained-Apes Interesting how with all of the attention and drama surrounding Hamilton, Jenson’s been a bit more under the radar this season. But his excellent form is still being recognised, apparently.

Using a spread analogy, Hamilton is marmite, a love or hate figure. Button is orange marmalade- some love him, most like him and but no one hates him. As we select who we support with a true or false, Button is on average more widely liked. Know what I mean?

I’m kind of a Schumi fanboy to be honest. I started watching in 1996, when the Schumi/Ferrari era began, and he was like the hottest thing on F1 but always loosing the championship after fighting for it every year, seeing all the races when he was in a car that wasn’t the best and fighting for the championship till the end of the season every year made me realize how good he was, so when he won the 2000 championship after 4 years of trying, was one of the happiest days in my life, I loved the total domination years too cause I saw them as a reward for all the troubles of those years when he fought like a mad man for the title. I’m very aware of the things he accomplished as a F1 driver and in my opinion nobody would come close to what he has done in the sport. I “hated” Villeneuve, Hill, Hakkinen with passion at the time.
Always loved the colors in Orange and Jordan cars, I’m from South America so never knew what Orange was but I thought their logo and cars were so cool and “hip”. Also a big fan of Heinz Harald Frenzen when he was in Jordan, Fissichella in Minardi/Jordan/Benetton and also liked Rubens Barrichello in his Stewart days.
I don’t like this new Vettel’s domination and I don’t find it similar to Schumi’s days ’cause as I said before, I don’t think he earned the right to be that dominant, I know the car is the most important part of a driver to win a WDC but at least Schumi was fighting for it for 6 years (won the first two of course) before he had the best car in the field. I don’t like Hamilton at all, especially cause he didn’t start his f1 career in one of the lower tier teams, a fact that in my opinion will always hinder his ability to deal with the reality of having a car that can’t win, we’ve seen the effects of this since 2009. My second favorite driver after Schumi is Kimi Raikkonen another driver that in my opinon was really something different, strangely enough, I never “hated” him when he was fighting for the championship against Schumi. I liked Alonso when he was in Minardi, “hated” him in 2005-2006 obviously, but I think he is up there with Schumi and Kimi as one of the best drivers of the past decade and continues to be a very strong force in this one.

I picked Liuzzi, Buemi, Trulli, Alguersuari, Massa, Perez, Barrichello, HRT and Toro Rosso (and other more popular choices). Proud to be in the minority!
Out of me only other 8 people support Tonio! :(

I marked myself down as having started following F1 in 1997, because of Jacques Villeneuve. I watched a bit before, but with races on so early in the morning from Canada, it was more just an excuse to spend time with my dad.

But when I think about it, while I watched the races plenty back then, my interest waned for a few years before coming back in earnest around 2004.

Reading this on the phone so I might be wrong but have others noticed the massive spike in 1994?
A bit surprised that Ferrari is so far behind and schumi too. I think the driver leader board would look very different if past drivers were also added.
Regarding the question of brit bias – I think that cannot be assumed. EPL is extremely popular in Asia for ex. Maybe its a language barrier of the site.
Keith will know where all the fans of the site come from – will be an interesting chart :)